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treaties, directives and coua decisions First and foremost, the Berne Convention establishes certain foundations to which member countries must adhere—and which must be understood to place in context the changes effectuated by the recently-adopted and proposed legislation." EU law is also reviewed in this section, including the effects of the recent Phil Collins'^ case of the European Court of Justice on calculation of duration. Current U.S. law is also briefly reviewed to provide the context for discussing the U.R.A.A. and the proposed U.S. Copyright Term Extension Act.
A. Berne Convention
1. General principles and rules
All fifteen countries of the EU are members of the Berne Convention, as is the United States and the EFT A countries " The Berne Convention prescribes certain minimum standards of protection which Berne-signatory countries must accord works.
(a) Principle of national treatment
One of the fundamental tenets of the Berne Convention is the principle of "national treatment." This principle provides that a member-country court must give works of other countries-of-origin the same treatment it accords works of its own nationals." For example, the copyrights of a United States national author or owner will, in general, be treated as the copyrights of a national of the country in which the copyrights are sought to be enforced The Berne Convention, while setting minimum standards for certain areas of copyright, did not standardize the copyright laws of the Convention members." The Berne Convention contains certain exceptions to the principle of national treatment by permitting member countries to adopt their own laws to address certain issues, such as design protection and droit de suite (resale rights) and, notably, copyright duration. Therefore, the national laws of the country in which protection is sought apply to questions arising within the boundaries of that country.
"The Universal Copyright Convention is not discussed in this article, as all of the countries that are discussed are memljers of the Berne Convention and are obligated to apply the terms of that Convention. D Nimmer, M. Nimmer, 3 Nimmer o\ Copyright al § 17 01(B). p 17-11 [hereinafter Nimmer). '^Judgement of 20 October 1993. joined cases C-92/92 and C-326/92. Phil Collins v Imiral Handelseelleschan nibH 11993). 3 CMLR 773. 791 (1993) [hereinnflcr Phil Collinsl ' '"Treaties in the Field of Copyright and Neighboring Rights Adminislcrcd by WIPO. Berne Convention for the Protection of Lilerar>' and Anislic Works." Copvrigiit. Januar>' 1994. '*Bcme Con\enlion. supra note 13 ai An 3
''Member countries arc free to enter into treaties with pro\ isions which grant to authors more e.\tensive rights than those granlcd in the Berne Convention. Berne Convention, supra note 13 at Art. 20.
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